


What About Blaine?

by Moonshoesklaine



Category: Glee
Genre: wheelchair!Blaine
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-14
Updated: 2017-06-17
Packaged: 2018-04-26 10:39:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 27
Words: 21,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5001535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonshoesklaine/pseuds/Moonshoesklaine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set during Shooting Star, but a little different-Blaine gets shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. What about Blaine?

**Author's Note:**

> So this story was originally on my fanfiction site, but I've decided to put it on here as well :)

Still talking about Britney's latest meteor confession, the New Directions filed into the choir room. Only Blaine was missing-but that was because Sue had sent him into her office to fetch something for her.

Mr Schue began to explain the plan for their regionals set list when they heard it.

BANG

They all sat in silence, silently praying that it wasn't what they thought it was, and that it was a car exhaust, or a fire cracker, when another shot rang out.

Will and Bieste immediately set into work, telling everyone to hide, and turning the lights off as the corridors were filled with screaming children. Will locked the door and put his finger to his lips to silence the New Directions.

It all grew quiet; the only noise to be heard was from the metronome in the middle of the room.

"Okay guys," he began, "I want you all to start texting, tweeting, just don't say where you are. Gunmen have smart phones too." The rooms silence changed as everybody started typing away furiously on their phones.

Almost a minute went by when Sam spoke up, "Mr Schue-what about Blaine?" Everybody stopped what they were doing and looked up from their phones to look at Will.

He looked at their panicked faces, and realised how desperate they were for an answer from Sam's question. Clearly they were all extremely worried about Blaine, but in all honesty, Will was the same. Inside- he was just as worried as the rest of them, but outside? Outside he had to be the teacher. He had to be the adult.

He took a deep breath in, hoping that what he was about to say was true, "I'm sure Blaine's fine. He's a smart kid; he'll know what to do."

"Well what if I call him? He'll probably have his phone on silent anyway, so I can call him and just make sure that we both keep our voices to a whisper." Will considered this for a second, weighing out the pros and cons in his head, "Please Mr Schue? I just need to make sure that he's alright. What if he's freaking out? We can't just leave him." It was seeing the pure fear in Sam's eyes that persuaded Will in the end, so he nodded, "Alright. But you two have to keep your voices down to a whisper. Okay?"

Sam nodded frantically and whipped out his phone from his pocket, quickly pressing 2. Will guessed that he had Blaine on speed-dial, judging by the fact that Sam only had to press one number.

He held the phone to his ear, before thinking better of it and moving it away, putting the phone onto loud speaker. After a couple of rings it picked up, and Sam sat up straight.

"Sam?"

"Yeah, Blaine, it's me. You alright buddy?"

"I-I think so. Are you? What about everyone else? Are they okay?" Sam didn't like how weak and tired Blaine sounded. Immediately he feared the worst, and with a tear threatening to fall from his eye, he noticed that the other members of the New Directions looked just as afraid as he felt.

"We're fine, Blaine. What do you mean, you think so?"

"I'm-I'm not sure. I mean, I'm hiding, but it's really cold, and I'm tired. I jus' wanna sleep. I'll ring you back later Sam."

Sam's eyes widened, "NO! Blaine! Don't!"


	2. Were you shot?

"Blaine, don't fall asleep, man. Where are you hiding?"

"In the janitor's closet." He laughed weakly and Sam looked confused, "What's so funny?"

"Oh-n-nothing. I just, I've spent most of my life out of the closet and now I'm back in one."

Sam managed to crack a small smile at that, before a look of seriousness crossed his features again, "Blaine- I need you talking to me okay?" He waited until he had heard a noise of confirmation on the other line before continuing, "Were you shot?"

There was silence, and a long, shaky breath. "Blaine! Come on man, were you shot?" A tear ran freely down his face.

"I-uh-yeah," The choir room was filled with sobbing teenagers, even some of the tougher boys were crying openly. Clearly they all loved Blaine more than they let on. Sam wiped his eyes before breathing in deeply, "Where were you shot, man?"

"In my-In my side and-and my shoulder. Sam It really hurts, can I just sleep now? Please?"

The innocent pleading brought so much pain to Sam. He hated to hear his best friend so deflated, so weak. But he had to stay strong. He couldn't break down into a sobbing mess in front of all his friends; he had to be strong for Blaine.

"Blaine? You need to stay with me okay? You can't go to sleep just yet. We're gonna get you some help, alright buddy?"

"Mm-kay."

"Alright, just keep pressure on the wounds if you can and keep talking to me."

"About what?"

"Anything dude-Oh! I know, next Saturday-you have got to come down mine for the night. How's that sound?"

"Sounds great."

Blaine's voice was growing weaker and weaker; Sam could clearly tell that his best friend was trying his hardest to hold on. He hoped they would get the all clear soon, because he knew that Blaine needed help.

And he needed it now,

He went to continue, about to start a conversation with Blaine about something that they both loved.

Superheroes.

"Okay, now tell me_" But he was cut off by the sound of Blaine's phone hitting the floor. His heart stopped as he waited for Blaine to speak. Maybe he had just dropped it. Yeah. Maybe that was it.

He tried calling his name, but it was no use.

There was no reply.


	3. All Clear!

Sam jumped up from his place on the floor, intent on racing out the door, and heading straight for the closet where Blaine was. He almost made it to the door when Will and Biestes arms around him made him stop.

"Mr Schue, please! You have to let me find Blaine! He needs help."

"Whoa, easy pumpkin. You can't go out there Sam, you're gonna get killed."

"Well what about Blaine! What if he's not okay! It's gonna be my entire fault!"

"Sam, how would it be your fault?"

"Because," His voice trailed off, quietly, "Because I couldn't keep him talking. And if he's not okay, then I'll never be able to live with myself."

The teachers' expression softened, but his grip remained tight. How could Sam think it would be his entire fault? None of this was because of him. None of it.

He looked to Bieste for help, "Sam, look, the SWAT team guys are probably out there as we speak, and as soon as we get the all clear, I promise you can look for Blaine, alright?"

"But coach-"

"No buts, Sam, trust me. If you go out there, you are going to get killed. You might even get us killed too."

"What, so it's okay for Blaine to die, but not us? How is that even fair?"

"Sam! Listen. It's going to be okay. I promise. Just sit down."

Sam gave up, not having the energy in him to fight the teachers and sat in the corner of the room. He hugged his knees to his chest, and laid his head in between them, allowing tears to frequently drop. The silence in the room meant that everyone could hear the sound they made as they made contact with the choir room floor.

Britney bit her lip and walked over to Sam; she put her hand on his shoulder and forced him gently to look her in the eyes, "Don't worry, Sam. Blaine's gonna be okay-dolphins always are. Okay?" He nodded slowly, really hoping that this was the case.

There were more footsteps outside the door, and a deep voice echoed in the corridor, "All clear!" Sam jumped up in relief. He threw himself at the door, and swiftly unlocked it. He was vaguely aware of the others following behind him, and Mr Schue telling someone to get the paramedic as he raced towards his best friend.

That's all he could think about.

Blaine.

He finally reached the closet, out of breath, and yanked it open. A fresh set of tears ran down his face at the sight he was met with.

Blaine, who had obviously been leaning against the door for support, fell at his feet. His body was limp. The pale pallor of his face contrasted with the crimson red pouring out of his body-there were two rapidly growing puddles beginning to form-one gathering around his left shoulder, the other forming around his right side.

Sam yanked his shirt off and scrunched it into a ball before Jake tore himself from Marley and did the same. They both applied their shirts to different wounds and pressed heavily to stop the bleeding. With a shaking hand, Ryder checked Blaine's neck for a pulse, breathing a mild sigh of relief when he found one-it was weak, but it was there.

Sam tried slapping his face lightly, calling his name, trying to wake Blaine up-each try proving useless. Just then, Mr Schue came barrelling around the corner, with two paramedics carrying a stretcher in tow.

The first of the paramedics was a strawberry blonde. He bent down on one knee next to the two boys, "Okay, what's his name?"

"Uh-Blaine. Blaine Anderson." The two paramedics took over from Sam and Jake, applying something to his injuries.

Sam wiped the sweat from his face, not caring when he accidentally smeared blood across his forehead.

Blaine was loaded on to the stretcher, and wheeled outside. Multiple gasps could be heard from students and teachers alike when they saw the cheerio being wheeled out, completely unresponsive.

Sam tried to climb into the ambulance with them but the female paramedic put a hand on his chest, stopping him, "I'm sorry, but we need to treat and take care of your friend. This is very serious." She slid the doors shut and the ambulance began to drive away.

Sam stumbled backwards and fell into the arms of the New Directions, each one of them a sobbing mess. After a moment or two he pulled back and shook his head, "I've got to go and see Blaine guys. He's my best friend."

"We'll go as well."

They all got into their respective cars, following Sam as he sped his way to the hospital. When they reached the car park, Sam all but jumped out of his car and raced through the hospital entrance.

"Blaine Anderson?" He asked the young woman at reception.


	4. Waiting on news

Sam was bouncing on his feet, nervously. The young receptionist looked sympathetically at him, "I'm sorry, he's been taken into surgery, but I can take you to the waiting room if you'd like."

Sam nodded eagerly, and allowed the receptionist to lead them down a series of corridors, turning right at the end of a particularly busy one. They followed her into a room with light blue carpet and white walls. There was a wooden table in the middle, and around the room were blue, cushioned chairs-and small tables with stacks of magazines.

The room was empty, which, really, was just as well considering how many of them there were. Marley spoke up, breaking the silence, "Has anyone told his parents yet?" They looked around at each other; Artie was sitting silently in his chair, his hands in his lap. Jake was rubbing his thumb against one of Marley's hands. Tina was looking at the posters around the room, Unique was reading one of the magazines, Ryder was drumming his fingers against the arm of the chair and Kitty-for once-was silent, she too was flicking through a magazine.

Will, Coach Bieste and Sue were all sitting in the corner of the room, and opposite them were Sam and Britney. Britney had her head resting on one of Sam's broad shoulders, but Sam was too preoccupied to notice, he had one arm around her shoulders, but seemed to be staring into space. His foot was repeatedly tapping against the floor, out of pure fear.

Nobody replied to Marley until Tina spoke up, her voice snapping Sam out of his trance, "He never really talks about his parents much, so I don't know their number. Sam? Do you have it?"

All heads turned to Sam, he was the closest to Blaine out of all of them, so he would be the most likely person to have it. Right?

"Uh-Well I have a number for them, but I'm not sure if it's right. It could be an old number or something."

"Sam," That was Mr Schue.

"Hmm?"

"How much do you know about Blaine's parents?"

Sam had to stop and think about that for a second. Blaine hardly ever mentioned his parents when he was with him, and whenever he was over Blaine's house, his parents were never there-they were always away on business.

"Uhh-not much. They're never around, I don't think. Burt's his emergency contact." The teacher nodded, thinking that his emergency contact-whoever it was-would have already been called.

"Should I try the number anyway? You never know, it might work." Mr Schue nodded in response to Sam's question, and Sam excused himself, stepping out of the room, grateful to have something to do.

Two minutes later he re-entered the room, an angry look on his face.

"Sam? What's up?"

"They-They aren't coming."

"What?"

"They aren't coming. Their own son is in hospital, and they aren't coming!"

"Well, did they say why?"

He scoffed, "Yeah. They said that they already have a holiday booked for themselves and they aren't going to cancel it just because Blaine's been shot. His dad, he-"Sam had to pause, "His dad said that he probably deserved it."

This caused uproar among the students. After a while (and a stern warning from an old nurse to keep it quiet), they calmed down slightly.

Suddenly, the doors to the room flew open and in came Burt Hummel, Carole hot on his heels. His eyes were red and bloodshot, as if he'd been crying, and he fiddled with his hat between his hands, "What the hell happened?"

Nobody really knew how to answer Burt, so they sat in awkward silence, until Britney spoke up for the first time since they arrived at the hospital, "Kurt's ex-dolphin was shot."

Burt cursed out loud-a rare thing. He looked around and noticed that Blaine's parents weren't there, but, then again-he didn't really expect any different.

He was about to say something else, when a middle aged man-hair already starting to grey-walked in. He had a stethoscope hanging loosely around his neck, and blood splattered here and there on his scrubs-which they could only assume was Blaine's.

"Blaine Anderson?" Everybody stood up-apart from Artie, who just sort of, rolled- and the doctor was taken aback at how many people were there, "Now. I have some good news for you, but I'm afraid there's also some bad. Which do you want first?"


	5. Hearing the news

"The good. Definitely the good." Everyone nodded in agreement with Sam. The doctor nodded, "Okay, Well we managed to safely remove the bullet from his shoulder, and that was done fine without any problems. And we did manage to remove the other bullet to-"

"Why do I feel a but coming on?"

"Because there is, I'm afraid. Now, the other bullet managed to lodge itself in Blaine's lower back, near his spinal cord. As I said, we managed to remove it, but the blood around that area has clotted, and as it is in too much of a dangerous position to remove, we have to leave it there."

"What? Why?"

"Because, the clot will do more harm if we remove it. The clot does mean that Blaine will lose feeling in his legs, temporarily, but we are confident that in time, the blood will un-clot itself, and Blaine will regain the use of his legs."

Ryder went to say something, but the doctor stopped him, "Wait. There's more."

"Okay-"

"By the time we brought him in, he had already managed to lose a lot of blood, meaning that by the time we got to operate on him-he was already gone. We were able to bring him back, but as I said, we did unfortunately lose Blaine for approximately 3 minutes. But despite all that, I am confident that, aside from needing the chair and the sling-both temporary of course-Blaine will make a full recovery. Now, any questions?"

Everyone shook their heads, too stunned to speak.

Blaine had died.

He had died for 3 minutes.

"Can we-Can we see him now?" They had never heard Sam so upset, it was like someone had ripped out his heart, and broken it in two right in front of him. The doctor nodded, and gestured for them to follow him.

They all stood up, and again-apart from Artie (who rolled once more), they walked behind him in single file into a private room.

The room was different to the one they had just been in. The walls were a stark white, with nothing but a bed, a small chair, and a table inside the room The table was the same colour as the walls and stood on the other side of the bed.

Most of the New Directions stayed just inside the door, allowing Sam the space to sit on the chair next to the bed and they all had to bite back a fresh load of tears. They all gasped as they saw Blaine lying there.

They had expected it to be bad. But not like this.

Blaine was propped up against 3 pillows, his left shoulder was bandaged and kept close to his body in a blue sling. His face was pale, nearly the same colour as the sheets. His eyes were glazed over-something which the old New Directions had seen as a result of the pain meds after the slushie incident last year. His hair was a completely different story. Not many people had seen him without his curls, but now?

Well, now-some of his hair was gelled down, but the majority of it had broken free from the gel, and little curls were beginning to sprout all over his head-Tina thought it looked absolutely adorable.

His face broke into a grin when he saw everyone in the room.

"Hey guys." His voice was raspy, and Sam took the small polystyrene cup from the table and guided the straw into Blaine's mouth.

"Hey dude, how are you feeling? In any pain?" He finished his mouthful and shook his head, "Nope-pain meds. This stuff is great." They smiled at this, loving his attempt to cheer everyone up despite his situation.

"So, dude-I hope you don't mind me asking, but-what happened?"


	6. Learning the truth

Blaine took a deep breath in and shifted himself with his good arm, so that he was sitting straighter, "It was an accident. I don't think she realised she'd done it."

"She?"

"Yeah, let me explain."

"Well, hello there young Burt Reynolds, say- I need you to do me a favour."

"Okay, sure. What is it?"

Sue walked closer to him and whispered into his ear, "In my office, there is a bunch of sheet music. Don't ask me why I have it, I just do-but I don't want William to find them in case he jumps to conclusions and thinks that I actually like what he does."

"Well, do you like it or not?"

She shook her head, "Of course I don't, show choir puts me to sleep faster than sleeping pills. But anyway, I need you to go into my office, and dispose of the sheet music. Okay?"

"That's it? That's what you need me to do? Recycle paper?"

He moved to walk away but Sue stopped him, "Well you can just make it a job for that bird guy you dressed up as."

"You mean nightbird?"

"Yeah. Him. So will you do it?"

He pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and his forefinger, "Okay, yeah. Fine. I'll do it."

"Thank you-and don't tell anyone."

"Whatever."

"Wait-so, Sue did it?"

"I most certainly did not."

"No-just-Will you let me finish my story?"

"Yeah. Sorry bro."

"Thank you."

He walked into Sue's office, just like Nightbird would do, only without the costume, it was in his locker and he wanted to be back in time for glee club so he decided against the costume.

He snuck through the door and headed straight for the shelves, picking up piles of paper and putting them down again. Sue hadn't said how big the bunch was, so for all he knew, he could be looking for a tiny stack, or a massive pile.

Finding nothing on the shelves, and not having the key to her locker, Blaine began looking through Sue's drawers-In the top one he found some sort of Diary.

No-Journal. He found some sort of journal.

He also found some sort of weird protein shake, but that was about it. In the next drawer down, there were stacks of cheerleading formations. Finally, as his last hope, he looked in the bottom drawer of the desk. He opened it, and-

BINGO!

A stack of sheet music lay on the top of the drawer. He went to pick it up, but he heard footsteps outside the room, so he quickly shut the drawer and hid behind the desk.

The figure from outside the room entered, and Blaine cursed under his breath. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see something black. It was hanging loosely from the person's hands and Blaine recognised instantly what it was.

A gun

Oh Crap.

The figure was wearing a skirt, he knew that much-or a dress-he could see their legs, which meant that it had to be a girl. She walked slowly, on the side that Blaine was on, and he quietly shuffled around the other side of the desk.

He made it round the other side and ran over to the door, trying to be as silent as he could. But of course, his ankle knocked something over and a pot fell clattering to the floor. Blaine paused where his hand was resting on the handle and knew that the girl had heard.

He spun round on one leg, surprised to find that she hadn't turned around. Now, any normal person in this situation would walk away, maybe even run-unless you were Blaine, or knew the girl.

Or both.

He dropped his hand from the handle and let his arms fall to his side, "Becky?" Sure enough, Becky Jackson turned around from where she was standing-mere inches away from where Blaine was just crouching.

She must have been startled, because she jumped back into the trophy cabinet, accidentally increasing the pressure on the trigger.

BANG

A shot rang out, and a bullet went barrelling into Blaine's collar bone. That shot startled Becky, and she dropped the gun, it firing another bullet on impact and sliding under the desk.

She ran out of the room, and Blaine went to follow, it wasn't until he reached the corridor that he realised that the second bullet had managed to find its way to his body too-this time, in his side, near his lower back.

He knew he wouldn't be able to make it to the door, so he ran to the nearest cupboard-the janitors closet-and closed the door behind him. Then he began to lose feeling in his legs, blood was flowing freely, and he leaned up against the door for support.

"And that's when you phoned me."

By the end of it, they were all startled, but nobody more than Sue, "So-the gunshots were Becky?"

"Yeah. But she didn't mean them."

"Blaine-I'm sorry."

Wait.

Had Sue just apologised?

But for what?


	7. Complications

"Coach Sylvester? Why are you sorry?" Everyone's heads turned to Sue, who was looking at Blaine, the most sincere look on her face that they had ever seen.

"Coach? Why are you sorry?" he repeated, "You didn't fire the gun."

"Well, no but-if I hadn't sent you to get the sheet music from my office, then you wouldn't have been in there, and probably wouldn't have been shot. None of this would have happened."

"But it could have been anyone in there. You could have sent anyone in there, and they might have been shot. I would get shot over and over again if it meant that nobody else would have to get hurt."

"But-"

"No buts," his face was serious, "I'm just glad that it wasn't someone else."

And really, what else could Sue say to that? As if sensing the awkward silence from outside the room, a nurse knocked on the door and floated in with a smile on her face, "Hello. I'm Nurse Lane. The doctor wants me to give you some more painkillers, so I'm just going to pop them into your IV, okay?"

He nodded and she picked up a syringe from the small tray she was carrying, watching as it flowed through his IV line. When it had finished, she excused herself from the room and left the same way she came in.

It wasn't until an hour later that Blaine began to feel nauseous, he could feel sweat dripping down his forehead, and sat up straighter, hoping to settle his stomach.

Sam noticed his friends discomfort and shot up in his chair, "Blaine? You okay, man?" He shook his head weakly, "Don't feel so good." Sam immediately picked up a small tray from the table and shoved it under Blaine, just in time for him to empty the contents of his stomach into it.

When there was nothing left for him to throw up, he could only gag. He finally finished, and with Sam's help, sat back. Sam looked at him with concern, his face was flushed, and Sam put his hand on his forehead-drawing it back almost immediately.

"Jesus, man! You're really hot!" Blaine tried to reply, he really did, but he suddenly found it increasingly difficult to gather air into his lungs. He tried taking deeper breaths, but that didn't work either, "I'm going to get a doctor." And Will ran out the room.

He came in not a minute later with the same doctor and nurse from earlier. The doctor took one look at Blaine and knew what was happening. He rushed towards him, giving him an oxygen mask to wear, and instructing him on how to breathe.

He then turned to the nurse, who was standing by, watching, "What did you give him?" He demanded angrily.

"I gave him Codeine-just like you said."

"No! I said to give him morphine! He's allergic to Codeine-read his file!"

The nurse's eyes widened and started apologising over and over again.

"Well don't just stand there! I need-" The doctor started reeling off a list of things he needed to help Blaine, but Sam wasn't listening.

He had to get out of there-he just couldn't stand back and watch his best friend suffer.

So he ran outside into the corridor outside his room.

"Sam!" Burt had joined him. He put a comforting hand on his shoulder and eased him into one of the chairs.

"Sam, look at me! Blaine is going to be fine. Okay? He's not going to let some allergic reaction determine how long he lives his life for, okay? He's stronger than that."

Sam nodded. He was about to walk back in, when he saw the rest of the room's occupants being ushered out. They all look worried and when he looked through the glass he could see why.

Blaine was lying limp and lifeless on the bed. The doctor was standing over him pushing down on his chest. Blaine had a different mask on than before and Sam wondered how long the doctor would do this for.

Not long, apparently. He must of called for a crash team because within seconds a team of people wheeling a trolley pushed their way into the room.

The doctor grabbed the two paddles from the machine on the trolley, and made sure everyone else was out of the way, before pressing them on Blaine's chest.

Nothing.

The second time he did it, though, the machine connected to Blaine started beeping again-slow and steady, showing that he had a heartbeat.

The nurses filed out of the room, the last of them being the doctor. He rubbed his forehead and addressed the group, "I'm afraid Blaine has had an allergic reaction to the pain killers. The swelling in his throat seemed to go down with the epi-pen I administered, so I'm happy to keep him here to monitor him. When he wakes up, he may be a little groggy, so just explain to him what's happened and he should be fine."

They nodded, "You can go back in there now, if you'd like, just be very careful, okay?" Again, they nodded and one by one re-entered the room. Sam was first, then Burt, and everyone else seemed to just filter in behind.

Sam reclaimed his seat, and looked at Blaine, with a tear threatening to fall.

"That was a close one buddy."


	8. Talking to the cops

Nurse Lane watched through the glass as the blonde teenager took his seat next to Blaine. She was such an idiot. How could she give him the wrong medicine? He was still a child, more or less. It was written in his file and she hadn't read it at all.

"Nurse Lane, can I see you in my office please?"

The young woman nodded and followed the doctor into his office and took a seat when he gestured for her to do so. She knew this was coming, and she knew that she deserved it.

"Now, Jenny-you know why you're here, don't you?" It was a rhetorical question, but she answered it none the less, "Yeah."

"Jenny-what you did back there-that was serious. You could have killed him"

"I know. I'm sorry."

"No, Jenny. This time sorry just isn't enough. This was your second chance, and you blew it. It's gonna be hard, I know, but I have to let you got. I'm sorry, Jenny-but you're fired."

She stood up and nodded, understanding. She knew how he must have felt about firing her, but knew that it had to be done. She had gone too far this time.

She opened the door and just as she walked out, two police officers came heading towards his office. She took one last look at his office before cleaning out her locker, and walking out the hospital doors for good.

Officer Carter and his assistant stood outside the office. He knocked on the wood 4 times before entering with his partner.

"We're here to see Blaine Anderson-we were hoping that he was okay to see now.

The officers had in fact, been called when Blaine was first called in, but then Blaine was brought into surgery, then he needed the time with his friends, and then of course, was the medicine incident, so the officers had been asked to wait longer still.

"I can take you to him now if you want?" he suggested, Officer Carter nodded, and the two cops followed the doctor to Blaine's room. Before he could allow them in, though, the doctor had to stop them, "Blaine has in fact had a really stressful and tough couple of hours, so I will have to ask you to try and keep him calm."

"Sure thing." The two took of their hats and stepped into the room.

"Hello, Blaine, my name is officer Carter, and this is my partner officer Smith. We're here to talk to you about what happened today, if that's okay with you."

Blaine nodded and the officer continued, "Do you want your friends to leave the room, or would you rather they stay in here?"

"Well, they know the story anyway, so I don't see any point in kicking them out.

"Okay, so," Officer Carter took out a small black notebook and a pen from his vest pocket, and flipped it onto a clean page, before continuing, "Do you think you could tell me what happened earlier on today?"

Once again, Blaine told the story he had told the New Directions. By the time he had finished, Officer Carter had filled over 5 small pages of notes. He asked Blaine a few more questions-just to confirm what he had said-before thanking him for his time and promising to be in touch.

He and Officer Smith left the building and Blaine was left with the New Directions once again.

Burt walked over to Blaine and put a firm, but gentle hand on his good shoulder, "You're a good kid Blaine, but there's one thing we haven't thought of."

He looked up, eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "Oh yeah? What's that?"

"How are we going to tell Kurt?"


	9. Telling Kurt

Blaine hadn't thought about that, "I-I'm not sure"

"Well, how about I go and ring him and you can stay here and get some rest, okay?"

He nodded and stifled a yawn, "Okay, Burt. Thank you."

"No problem, Blaine."

Burt stepped out into the corridor and clicked Kurt's number, he braced himself for the conversation he was about to have, he knew it wasn't going to go well.

After three rings he picked up, "Dad? Why are you calling? I saw on the news that there was a shooting at McKinley. They said there was a casualty, but it didn't say who. But you're calling, which must mean that-"

"Kurt, buddy, it's alright."

Burt heard him take in a deep breath, "Okay, I'm listening. What happened?"

"It's Blaine. He was shot"

"What?"

Burt could hear him growing hysterical, so he had to calm him down, "Kurt. Calm down."

"Calm down? How am I supposed to calm down when the person I- When Blaine's been shot? What happened? Is he gonna be okay?"

"I think it would be better if you came down to see him. He's been through a lot."

"Okay, I'm booking the flight as we speak-and it's done. Sorry dad, I'm gonna have to go now, my flight leaves in half an hour. I'll see you in a few hours. I'll be expecting the full story when I get there though."

"Sure thing buddy, I'll be there to pick you up from the airport, okay?"

"Okay, thanks dad. Bye."

"See you later kiddo."

Burt hung up the phone and slid it back into his pocket. He looked into Blaine's room and saw that Blaine was already asleep. Sam was slouched into his chair, his eyes closed as well. The rest of the New Directions had all sat down onto the floor, and were chatting quietly amongst themselves.

He stepped into the room and cleared his throat, the glee club members that were still awake looked up, "I'm uh-I'm going to go wait for Kurt at the airport, okay? You guys can head on home if you want, Blaine will probably be asleep for a while. I'll be back in a few hours."

"It's okay Mr Hummel, we're going to stay here until the nurses force us home, we've already talked about it."

He nodded to them and headed to his car.

He waited in his car at the airport until Kurt came out the doors. He rushed into the car, after dropping his bag in the boot. He climbed into the passenger side, and pulled his seatbelt over his body, clicking it in place.

"Dad-tell me what happened. Please."

Burt pulled out and headed back towards the hospital, explaining to Kurt everything about Becky and the gun, Sue apologising-to which Kurt had replied in shock with "What? The Sue Sylvester apologised?" Then he explained the extent of his injuries and finally about his allergic reaction.

They reached the hospital just as Burt was coming to the end of his explanation. Kurt jumped out of the car and allowed his dad to lead him into Blaine's room.

It brought a tear to his eye when he saw Blaine lying asleep in the hospital bed, and another when he saw the members of the New Directions, all gathered on the floor.

Burt stood, watching as Kurt floated over to Blaine's bedside. He took his hand in his own and rubbed his thumb over his knuckles. The contact caused Blaine to stir from his slumber, "hmm? Who dares disturb my slumber?" His voice was slurred, and somewhat groggy, but he chuckled slightly at his words-leaving Kurt confused.

"It's Kurt, honey."

"Kurt?"

"Yeah."

"But, you live in New York."

"Yes, but now I'm here."

He allowed his eyes to fully open, not quite believing that Kurt was here, but sure enough, he was met with the sight of two bright blue orbs, staring into his own.

"Kurt? Why did you come here?"

"Because, silly-I came to see if you were okay. My dad told me what happened." He dropped Blaine's hand and turned to the New Directions, "Can you guys give us some time alone please?"

They all nodded and went out into the corridor, occupying the chairs there. Sam, who had been roused during their conversation, also got up, and left the two alone-allowing Burt to exit first.

Now that they were alone, Kurt turned to Blaine and picked up his hand again, "It's gonna be okay, Blaine. We're gonna get through this." He paused, "Together."

"But, you have school."

"As do you, but I'm sure that NYADA will let me take some time off. Especially if I tell them it's because of my boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?"

Kurt bit his lip, "Yeah. I mean-if you'll take me back."

"Kurt-I-I don't know what to say."

"Well yes will be a good thing, So-what do you think? Will you take me back?"


	10. Klaine again?

"Kurt-I-Of course I'll take you back." Kurt had never seen Blaine smile so wide, "Well good. Blaine I need you to know that the whole time we were broken up, I couldn't stop thinking about you. I tried with Adam, because I thought it might help me get over you-but it didn't."

"It didn't?" Kurt shook his head, "No. It didn't, and do you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because he wasn't you."

"He-He wasn't me?"

"No. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get over you. The truth is Blaine-I didn't realise it until fairly recently, but I love you. I always have, and I always will. Until my dying day,"

"When did you realise?"

"I just told you."

"Until my dying day?" Kurt nodded, "You mean you realised it when you were watching Moulin Rouge?" He tried to hold back a smile, but failed. Kurt noticed this and smiled back, chuckling slightly, "Yeah. I was imagining our wedding day and realised that no matter how badly you may have hurt me in the past, you're the only one I see in my future. I want to spend the rest of my life with you Blaine. I want to get married to you, and have children. I want to start a family with you."

Tears started to form in Blaine's eyes, "I-I want that too, Kurt. That time we spent apart killed me. You're the only one for me, Kurt-and I can't see anyone else being with me."

"Blaine," Kurt wiped away the tear from Blaine's eye and smoothed a few curls from his forehead, "We're going to start again. Only this time-we will never, ever end,"

"I love you Kurt."

"I love you too," Kurt pulled him gently into a hug, and Blaine hugged him back with his one good arm.

From outside in the corridor, the New Directions watched on. They couldn't hear the conversation, but could see that it had ended in a hug-which must have meant something good.

They felt that the two needed some more time alone, so Marley stepped into the room and addressed the two boys, "We're gonna head home now. We'll be back tomorrow though. Bye Blaine-rest up, okay?"

"Okay Bye Marley."

The New Directions left for their own homes, leaving Blaine with just Kurt and Burt-who had made his way back into the room. When Burt re-entered, Kurt was sitting in Sam's previous chair, and Blaine was up and laughing to something he had said.

"So-You two certainly look happy."

Blaine looked at Burt, and the glint in his eye was back, "Yep, Kurt and I are back together."

Burt broke into a grin, "That's-that's incredible you two! I'm so happy for you."

Kurt looked outside, and saw the skies beginning to darken, "Well, why don't you get back to sleep for a while-save your energy for tomorrow, because you know that there are going to be questions from the New Directions. I'll be here when you wake up."

"Promise?"

"I promise. Goodnight Blaine. I love you." He kissed his forehead gently, and sat back into the chair, preparing to get comfy. After all, he had promised to be there when Blaine woke up.

And their relationship couldn't be started with broken promises, could it?


	11. Who asked who?

True to his word, Kurt had stayed all night. He may not have got much sleep on the uncomfortable hospital chair, but it was all worth it to see the smile on Blaine's face when he woke up.

He was still a little drowsy, so the smile was slightly lopsided, but he wasn't on enough pain medication to forget Kurt's face, so the first words out of his mouth when he cracked one eye open, was a rough sounding "Kurt?"

Kurt smiled and reached out for his hand. He smoothed his thumb over Blaine's knuckles before answering him, "Yeah, sweetie, it's me. How are you feeling? In any pain?" He shook his head and adjusted his hand so that the two hands were linked.

Kurt's skin was smooth and Blaine was relieved to finally be back with Kurt. He had woken up briefly in the night, wandering if he had dreamt the reunion with Kurt, but the doubt all disappeared when he saw Kurt leaning back in the chair, lips slightly parted and eyes closed.

The sight reassured him, and whenever the realisation of what had happened over the past few days hit him, he just thought about what it would be like to be back in the comfort of his boyfriends arms. That was enough to put a smile back on his face and send him back to sleep.

So of course, the first thing he uttered in the morning was Kurt's name. Especially when his was the first face he saw.

He glanced at the time and saw it was already quarter past ten. Kurt looked briefly at the door and then back at Blaine, "My dad's just gone to get some coffee or something. I've been texting the New Directions all morning, Marley said she was just getting ready and then Jake's going to drive her here-and I don't doubt that the rest of the New Directions will be here shortly. They got hardly any sleep."

Blaine's eyes widened at the thought of his friends losing sleep because of him, but Kurt was quick to reassure him, "No it's okay Blaine, they probably wouldn't have got any sleep anyway. What's happened is a lot to take in. Okay?"

"Okay."

He was just about to start up a conversation when there was a knock at the door. The two looked up to see the same doctor from yesterday walk through. He was carrying a clipboard, and thick framed glasses had slid down his nose.

"Good morning Blaine, I'm just here to take some vitals and then I believe you have some visitors that are quite eager to see you. I trust you slept well?"

"Fine thanks." He nodded and took to reading some numbers of the machine, noting them down in the clipboard.

Once he was satisfied with the readings he walked over to the middle of the room. He took off his glasses and put them into his pocket, addressing the teens in front of him, "Now, Blaine, I'm happy with your readings, and providing you're feeling up to it, I'm sure you'll be able to be discharged tomorrow. That sound good to you?"

Blaine grinned and nodded eagerly, "That would be great. Thank you."

But the doctor wasn't finished, "Now, of course you will have to attend regular therapy sessions to build up the muscles in your legs again, so we'll arrange that tomorrow, but for now, there's a whole corridor of people out there, and they're extremely keen to see you. Should I let them in?"

He looked to Kurt for his opinion, but he just shrugged, showing Blaine the decision was all his, "Sure. I'd love to see them." The doctor nodded and poked his head around the door. Not long afterwards, the New Directions-old and new-entered the room, led by Artie.

The girls noticed the boys' linked hands and rushed towards them. Immediately, Blaine was bombarded with questions.

"When did this happen?"

"Who asked who?"

"Are you staying for good now?"

"Lord Tubbington knew this would happen."

Kurt had to step in at that point, "Guys-just give Blaine some space. Yes we're back together, and yes. It will be for good."

"But who asked who?"

"Blaine, do you want to take this one?"

"Well, uh-Kurt asked me."

Squeals came from the girls, and even some from the boys-not that they would admit it. Really, the only silent one was Sam. Blaine didn't notice this-too busy with hugs from the girls. The same couldn't be said for Kurt though. He noticed Sam's unusual quietness, and needed answers.

"Hey, Sam? Can I talk to you for a second please?"

"Kurt?"

"It's alright Blaine. I'll be right back."

"Okay."

He led Sam out into the corridor and folded his arms across his chest.

"What's up, man?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that question?"

"Huh?"

"Why are you so silent? You're never usually this quiet."

"I just-" He broke off, unable to speak. Kurt frowned and prompted him to continue.

"It's just that-after you and Blaine broke up, he wasn't the same. He was even going to transfer back to Dalton for a while. He signed the papers and everything."

"Really?"

"Yeah-and he went all quiet and stuff. It just-he wasn't the same Blaine anymore. I know that it wasn't your fault, but it killed me to see him like that-it killed me to see him so withdrawn."

"What's your point, Sam?"

If there was a point to this conversation, Kurt really hoped it was soon. His dad walked past, looking more awake than he had the previous night. He touched his arm, silently asking Kurt if he was alright. He nodded and opened the door for his dad, before turning back to Sam.

The blonde in question had shoved his hands in his pockets, and was shifting from foot to foot, looking uncomfortable, as if whatever it was that he wanted to say would cause him to break down at any moment.

Kurt was frowning now, "Sam?"

"Just don't hurt him again, dude. Please. He's been hurt enough."


	12. Sleeping arrangements

"Sam-I'm not going to hurt him. I love him."

"Yeah, I know you love him, man-but I'm his best friend, and he's mine. I just don't know how much more pain he can take. I don't want to see him go through any more-because it kills me every time I see him cry."

Well that was new, Kurt thought. He had been with Blaine for long enough to know that Blaine hated showing any signs of weakness to anyone-so he must really trust Sam.

"Listen to me, Sam. I realise that I made a mistake breaking up with Blaine-but I am never going to make that same mistake again. I love Blaine, and I know that he loves me too. Trust me, Sam. Blaine needs me more than ever right now-and I am going to be there for him. He's going to need you too though, so you're either with me, or against me. But if you're with me, then you're going to need to trust that I won't hurt him again. Okay?"

"Okay. I believe you Kurt. After all, Blaine doesn't love you for nothing, does he?"

They both laughed, although neither one of them were sure why. Then, Sam surprised Kurt by pulling him in for a hug.

After a short minute he pulled away from Kurt, wiping his eyes and putting his hands in his pockets.

"Well, I better head back in. Are you coming?"

Sam shook his head, and Kurt had a hunch as to why. Sam rarely cried in front of people, so he would probably want to smarten up before spoke to everybody, "I think I'm go grab a coffee or something. You want anything?"

"No thanks. I'm good."

"Tell Blaine I'll be back soon, yeah?"

"Of course."

So the two went their separate ways-Sam heading to the hospitals canteen, and Kurt into Blaine's room.

Blaine was laughing at something that Tina had said. His eyes lit up when he saw Kurt. Tina moved from sitting on the bed so that Kurt could take her place. Kurt smiled at her in appreciation and slid onto the bed, linking hands with Blaine.

Blaine looked around in confusion and turned to Kurt, "Where's Sam?"

"He went to get a coffee. He said he'd be back soon though."

"Okay." Kurt couldn't tell whether the okay was a good okay or an okay of disappointment, so he decided to ask, "Is okay-good?"

Blaine broke into a wide grin and winked at Kurt, "Okay is wonderful."

Kurt rubbed his thumb over Blaine's knuckles, "So when are you getting discharged? Has the doctor been back?"

"No, not yet-but he said I'll be able to be discharged tomorrow. I don't know what I'm going to do though."

Kurt's brow furrowed, "What do you mean? You Don't know what you're going to do about what?"

"Where I'm going to stay. My parents are on holiday, and I don't think the doctor's going to let me go home on my own."

"Well you can stay with me silly. My dad's your emergency contact any way, so we can get him to sign the forms and you can stay with us for as long as you need."

A tear was forming in Blaine's eye and Kurt was quick to wipe it away, "Don't cry, Blaine. I would do anything for you. You know that."

"Yeah, but-"

"But nothing. you're staying with us, and that's that."

"Okay."

"Now. Get some rest."

"But that's all I've been doing."

"Because that's all you need."

"Come on Blaine-the more you rest now the less you'll have to rest tomorrow at Kurt's, so he more time you can spend with him."

Blaine seemed to consider this for a moment, "Okay. I guess you're right."

"Duh."

The occupants of the room laughed, and Blaine slid his eyes closed, allowing him to fall asleep to the sound of his friends.

"Are you guys alright to stay here? Blaine will probably be asleep for a long time."

"We're fine. We can just chat, right guys?"

"Yeah, totally."

Just then, Sam came back into the room. He looked much better than he had when Kurt had last spoke to him.

"Blaine asleep?"

"Out like a light. Blaine's staying at your house right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"No reason, I guess. I just want to make sure he has someone looking after him. That's all."

Kurt tilted his head to the side and smiled at Sam, "You really care about him, don't you?"

"Of course. Blaine was there for me after that whole, Men of McKinley thing, and I just want someone to be there for him. Blaine, he-he always puts other people before himself, no matter how important the issue is, and he needs to know that we all care about him."

There were murmurs of agreement from the rest of the New Directions.

"Thank you, Kurt."

"For what?"

"For loving Blaine." Sam's facial features were so sincere, that Kurt knew that what Sam was speaking could only be truth.

He nodded and returned the smile Sam was giving him, "You too Sam. You too."


	13. Being discharged

Tomorrow couldn't come soon enough-not for any of them. The New Directions had all been pretty much forced home by one of the nurses, and so had Kurt-by his dad. Kurt had only agreed to go home on the one condition that Burt stayed.

So he did.

Burt stayed by Blaine's bedside all night, watching him as he slept. For most people, it would be considered creepy, but Burt thought of Blaine as another son.

There were a few times during the night that Blaine shifted in his sleep. A few times where his face showed pain-and not even Burt Hummel was afraid to admit that he teared up at the mere sight of it.

He managed to get some sleep, but only after the nurse had come in and reassured him that Blaine would be fine.

When he opened his eyes that morning he looked over to the bed and found that Blaine was still sleeping. He smiled and straightened up in his chair, waiting for Blaine to wake up.

And if that took an hour and 45 minutes? Well that didn't matter.

Blaine was a little groggy when he woke up. The first thing he did was yawn, "Burt? Where's Kurt?"

"He had to go home kiddo, but I stayed."

"The whole night?"

"Yeah."

Blaine's eyes started to water. He blinked away the tears and Burt sat up in concern, "Blaine? Are you okay? In pain?"

He shook his head, "No-I-it's just-You didn't have to do that."

"I know. But I did. You mean something to me Blaine, whether you're with Kurt or not-you will always be a part of my family. Okay?"

Blaine nodded and smiled. The doctor came in not a minute later. After making sure that everything was all in order, he wrote a prescription out and handed it to Burt for him to fill.

There was also the matter of forms. Burt was given the forms to sign in order for Blaine to be discharged.

That part was the easy part.

The harder part was getting Blaine himself ready. One of the nurses came and brought a wheelchair. It was a tricky job getting Blaine into the wheelchair with the sling supporting his arm, so eventually Burt bent down and put one arm under his knees, the other behind his neck.

With a gentle ease, the older man lowered Blaine into the chair, and positioned his feet so that they wouldn't drag along the floor. Of course, Blaine needed clothes, so Burt had brought a bag with him. The clothes belonged to Kurt though, so they were a little baggy on him, but neither one of the two men cared.

Burt made sure that Blaine was comfortable where he was, before saying goodbye to the doctor and heading out of the hospital doors-ensuring that the prescription was filled out.

Getting him into the car wasn't as hard as getting him into the chair, so Burt was able to lift him into the back seat, and fold the chair up easily. He climbed into the car himself and checked Blaine was okay one last time before setting off towards the Hummel household.

Blaine fell asleep half way into the journey, and was still asleep when Burt pulled up in the driveway. He texted Finn to bring the chair into the house while he lifted Blaine onto the couch. Blaine's head automatically lolled to the side and Burt pulled the blanket from where it was draped over the side of the couch and laid it over him.

Blaine stirred slightly, but ultimately remained asleep. It was at that moment that Kurt came down the stairs, rubbing his eyes as he did so, "I heard the door, is dad back?"

"Morning kiddo, yeah I'm back-but you're gonna have to be quiet for me."

"Why?"

Burt said nothing. He just pointed to the couch where Blaine was lying and smiled. Kurt matched his smile and descended the rest of the steps, "How long as he been asleep?"

"Not long. Do you have a key to his house?"

"Sure, why?"

"I was thinking of dropping by his house to pick up a few of his things. You coming?"

"Uh, yeah. Just let me get dressed."

Kurt laid a gentle kiss on Blaine's forehead, before heading back up to his room to get ready, as Burt handed Carole Blaine's medication.

Kurt was downstairs in less than ten minutes, and he handed Burt a key-which he assumed was Blaine's. Finn looked up from where he was already dressed and eating breakfast, before speaking with his mouth half full, "Can I come?"

"If you want. Come on-hop in the car."

Finn smiled and discarded his cereal, kissing his mum on the cheek and following Burt out the door.

For the first time since the shooting, Carole was left alone with Blaine.


	14. The Anderson household

Blaine slept pretty much the entire time-and as he did, Carole couldn't help but notice how peaceful he looked. He had had to deal with so much over the past few days, but her worries soon disappeared as she realised that he had the help now.

He had the help that-he might not have necessarily wanted-but the help that he needed.

He was back with Kurt, and had the support from everyone around him. All in all-aside from his injuries, Blaine was in a pretty good position right now-and Carole felt her heart swell up at that point.

To her, Blaine was like another son. Sure, when she married Burt she had gained Kurt, but having Kurt as a son also meant that she had gained Blaine.

Blaine was family.

Burt pulled up outside the Anderson household. It was bigger than expected.

Much bigger.

There was a gate which opened up the entrance to the garden. The driveway stretched into the garage, but also into a car park, meaning there was plenty of space for plenty of cars.

Sure-Kurt, Finn and Burt were in one car-but the space that the Anderson garden had meant that there was enough room for them to bring there own cars if they wanted.

The door was white. Not just any white, though-the door was so white that anyone would think it had just been painted. Kurt knew that wasn't the case though.

He fished out his key from his pocket and gently pushed open the door. Finn's mouth dropped open when he stepped inside. In front of him was a long hall way. The hall way split off into a number of different rooms, and had pictures lining the walls.

The walls were an ocean blue. Blaine had joked around Kurt a number of times that he had painted the house to match his eyes-but again-he knew that wasn't the case.

To anybody else, it would have looked like the house had 3 occupants-judging by the pictures on the wall. Those three occupants would be Mr and Mrs Anderson-and Cooper. There were hardly any pictures of Blaine up-in fact-there weren't any at all. Instead, numerous posters of Cooper from that credit rating ad were plastered up.

The first room branched off to the left. That was the living room. The walls were a dull grey, and had a TV in the corner that seemed to be gathering dust-proof that the room was rarely occupied. Under the window was a small 3 seater, and on the opposite wall was a 2 seater. The flooring was laminate and again, "family portraits" were hung up on the wall-only two or three, though.

The next room they went into was a dining room. This room was simple-a table in the middle of the room with 6 chairs around it and 2 on either end. There were no pictures in here, but a painting from Van Gogh was hung on the far wall. The table itself was set-all of the seats-and was complete with a folded napkin in each glass. Along with this, there was a small vase of flowers in the middle, but they were slowly dying.

On the right side of the corridor, was a bathroom. They didn't spend too long in here, because really-there was nothing to marvel at. Other than the immaculate condition the room was kept in-it was just an ordinary bathroom.

Well-room with a toilet and a sink.

The final room was at the end of the hall. This was the kitchen. There were a number of cupboards along the walls, with shiny, polished counters underneath them. The fridge was silver in colour and the freezer was next to it. Along one of the walls was a cooker-powered by electricity, of course. There was a kettle, a toaster and a blender, along with a number of other things. These were all kept in excellent condition as well.

The back door led into an extension, but this only kept the washing machine and the tumble drier. Another door then led out into the back garden.

The trio made their way upstairs. There were two flights of stairs, but they had decided to tackle them one at a time.

There were no pictures here, but the walls were again ocean blue. On this floor was the bathroom-a room with a bath, toilet, sink and a shower. Blue in theme, with a picture of a beach hung up on the wall. On the sand was a small heart-but Kurt knew that this was a house, not a home. Love was not present in here.

There were also 3 other rooms. One of them was a big room, with a double bed that was neatly made-no creases-and a cupboard on the far wall. There was an en suite bathroom here. It was clearly Blaine's parents' room.

The next room they came across was a guest room. This held a double bed and a painting on the wall. There was a small locker next to the bed and the curtains were opened, allowing the rays of sunlight to shine onto the pillow.

The final room had to have been Cooper's-though Kurt knew that Cooper barely ever stayed in this household. In all honesty, Cooper's room was like an ode to himself. There were pictures of himself from the ad above his bed, and on the small desk-there was a framed picture. It was of him and Blaine, the day Blaine was born-but it was the least dusty thing in the room. Clearly it was the thing that he cherished the most.

So far none of the house looked like it was lived in at all. It was in much to good condition to be a home. Finally, they went up the second flight of stairs. Kurt knew from past visits that this top area of the house was Blaine's. His parents were never around for long enough to even care, but Cooper respected his wishes and never went in there.

Kurt had, though.

Plenty of times.

On the top floor of the Anderson household, was Blaine's room. It was huge. It had the floor area of the bottom two floors, so, really-his room was like Kurt's apartment in New York. There wasn't a window in his room, instead-a skylight in the centre of the ceiling. It was a beautiful sight when the stars and moon were out.

Blaine's bed was right in the corner. It wasn't like what you'd expect, though. Blaine had a bunk bed-sort of. There was a couch on the bottom that turned into a double bed if need be (Which was whenever Kurt was round), and a single bed on the top. His bed covers were the Avengers-as were his pillows. On top of the pillow was the Margaret Thatcher dog Kurt had wrangled from Finn last year.

Around his room were various posters. Some were of Disney movies-other of Broadway shows. There were also posters of Blaine's favourite bands and a signed poster from Team Starkid.

Against one of the walls was a desk. The desk had an Apple laptop in the centre of it, the lid was closed meaning that the framed picture of him and Kurt on prom night could be seen clearly. So could his docking station. Above the desk were two notice boards. One board had school work on, while the other had pictures of Blaine and his friends from Dalton, Blaine and Kurt-and Blaine and the New Directions.

Against another wall was a keyboard. The keyboard had sheet music strewn across it-and so did the stool. Next to it, lying in its case in the corner was Blaine's guitar. It was no secret that he could play piano, but the guitar was something that he saved just for Kurt. It gave them another thing to share between just them.

There was a flat screen TV on one of the walls, with a built in DVD player. Connected to it was an Xbox and Finn's eyes widened at the sight.

On either side of the room was a door. On one side, the door led to a walk in wardrobe-with the door plastered in pictures of the two of them together. Perhaps the most flattering thing was the fact that at the top of the door, was a picture of Blaine, Finn, Kurt, Burt and Carole from when they went to the zoo for the day. As far as he could see, the only pictures of the Anderson's were down the bottom. There were only 3 of those. One of him and Cooper, and two of the whole family.

The wardrobe itself was filled with neatly organised shelves. On the top shelf was a box full of bowties, and the bottom of it was filled with shoes. Kurt knew that Blaine took pride in his appearance, so the state of his wardrobe was no surprise.

The other door led to a bathroom. The bathroom contained a shower, toilet and a sink. On the sink were a number of tubs of hair gel. One of them was already half emptied, but there were more in the cabinet above the sink. Also in the cabinet was toothpaste, deodorant and tooth brushes. It also acted as a medicine cabinet, so the bottom shelf had a small first aid kit, a thermometer and medicine.

There was also something else in the cabinet-but Kurt wouldn't tell them about that.

After grabbing his toothbrush, and a deodorant from the bathroom, the three went back into Blaine's room. Kurt opened up the wardrobe again and started to pick out outfits for Blaine. He made sure to pack a number of bow ties, because he knew that his boyfriend would kill him id he came back with none.

Meanwhile, Burt and Finn were gathering things from his room. They didn't really know what to pack, so they just brought his laptop and charger, his school work-because knowing Blaine he would want to do that, and the photo of him and Kurt. There were a few things in his desk drawer, but Kurt had said that they were private-so they didn't bother with that.

They were about to leave when Kurt took one look at the stuffed dog and placed it with the other stuff.

Once they were satisfied that they had got everything, Kurt locked the door before jumping back in the car with his dad and Finn and heading back home, eager to get back to Blaine.

All for different reasons.


	15. Nightmares and surprises

When the three men finally reached home, Carole was in the kitchen, busying herself with carrots, and Blaine was still asleep on the couch. His head was lolled against his chest, his lips slightly parted as he slept.

Burt carried in the things into the guest room, while Finn rushed up the stairs eager to get to his computer and Kurt sat down gently at the end of the couch.

He popped his head around the door, "Kurt? You wanna come help me with the guest room?" After taking one last look at his boyfriend, Kurt nodded and rose from his seat, before following in his dad's footsteps and going into the guest room.

Helping his dad didn't take too long. Together, they were done in less than 20 minutes, and joined the sleeping boy in the living room.

Blaine slept peacefully for most of the day, but at around 6 o'clock, he began to get restless. His torso began to twist as he slept, a pained look on his face. Kurt was quick to rush to his side. He placed one hand on his good arm, the other on his cheek.

Burt, trusting that Kurt would want some time alone with Blaine, got up to join his wife and help her with the dinner.

Blaine's eyes fluttered open a few seconds later. The first thing he saw was Kurt, so naturally, his first instinct was to reach out and cling tightly to him with his one good arm like he was his lifeline.

Kurt could feel Blaine's tears, soaking through his shirt. He rubbed the palm of his hand up and down Blaine's back, knowing for sure that it was the one thing that calmed him down when he was upset.

The two pulled apart after a minute or two, and sat in complete silence.

Kurt was the one to break it.

"Nightmare?" Blaine nodded.  
"Do you want to talk about it?" He shook his head.  
"Okay."

"Boys! Dinner!" Carole's voice and the smell of food drifting throughout the house was the thing that brought Finn bounding down the stairs. He stopped halfway to the kitchen, however and turned to Blaine and Kurt, "Do you wanna hand, man?"

He gestured to the wheelchair that was leaning against the couch. Blaine smiled and nodded, muttering a thank you to Finn as he gently lowered him into it. He expected him to stop there, so was pleasantly surprised when he pushed him through-a gesture which did not go unnoticed by Kurt.

Carole and Burt were already sat down at the table. Finn motioned for Kurt to sit down, before helping Blaine into the chair next to him and taking a seat at the head of the table.

They all began eating, and Burt started the conversation.

"So, Blaine-that's some house you have there."  
"Thanks. My parents bought it when I was little and we've had it ever since."  
"You have a really cool TV, Blaine."

He chuckled, "Thanks, Finn."

The rest of the meal continued as they made general chatter with each other. Once they were done, Blaine offered to help with the dishes, but Carole just gave him his medication, and told him to get some rest. He nodded and allowed Kurt to push him back into the living room, where he put on a film and helped him onto the couch.

Twenty minutes into it, however, Blaine was fast asleep, and there was a knock at the door. Kurt gently removed himself from where Blaine was leaning against him, and opened up the door.

The sight that he was met with caused his eyes to widen.

"Cooper?"


	16. Cooper's explanation

"Hey Kurt." Cooper raised his hand in the air sheepishly and Kurt raised his eyebrows.

"Kurt? Who was at the-Oh, Cooper. Hey, come in. Come in." Kurt stepped to the side to allow Cooper to step through the door. The older Anderson looked as if he hadn't slept in a while, and his hair-rather than the perfect style it had been last year when he came to visit-was sticking up in all directions. It looked as if he had constantly been running his hands through it.

He spotted Blaine on the couch and quickly turned his head away, afraid that any minute he would start to cry. Kurt had to admit, he did feel a little sorry for him, but at the same time, why hadn't he been to see Blaine before?

"You want to sit down, Cooper?"

"Oh, no thanks Burt. I just had to come and see how Blaine was. How is he?"

"He's holding up, I guess. How come you didn't come and visit him in the hospital?"

Cooper looked down, ashamed. He brought one hand to rub the back of his neck, "I-uh-I didn't know. I was in LA and wanted Blaine's advice with something so I tried calling him, but when he didn't reply I phoned our parents. They told me what happened. I had to get down here. I'm sorry I wasn't down here faster. Really."

Burt took a step closer and put a comforting hand on Cooper's shoulder, "Listen-Cooper we aren't mad at you. Why don't you stay here tonight, though? Blaine would love to see you when he wakes up."

Cooper thought about it, but he really did want to speak to his brother. Just remembering what his dad had said on the phone was enough to make him angry, but Blaine was the only person that mattered now, he was the important one.

Finally, he nodded. He sank down into the chair in the corner and accepted the glass of water that Burt passed into his hands. Then, he settled back, Kurt climbed back into his seat and Burt and Carole headed upstairs to their bedroom to give the boys some space.

Finn left after a while, saying something about a video game marathon with Puck leaving just Kurt, Cooper and a still sleeping Blaine. Cooper looked fondly at the couple on the couch before starting up a conversation with Kurt.

They were in for a long night.


	17. Anderbros reunited

Kurt used the silence and just listened. He listened to the quiet breaths that Blaine let out and thanked anything that would listen that Blaine was still alive-because there was a brief moment in time that he wasn't, and if that brief moment in time had expanded-well, they wouldn't have been where they were now.

"So you two are back together then?"

Kurt looked up, startled by Cooper's sudden voice. He smiled and nodded, playing with a loose curl that had fallen onto Blaine's fringe.

"I'm glad. Do you know how many nights Blaine spent crying on the phone to me about what an awful person he was?"

He shook his head.

"Too many, Kurt. Too many. I did tell him that you two would get back together, because you two were meant to be, but he just kept saying that he'd ruined it with you."

"I don't think he ever ruined it. We were just," He paused, searching for the word, "We were just postponed for a bit."

Kurt shifted slightly, a little uncomfortable with talking about their time apart. Honestly, he would never be able to get into anything serious with Adam, because everything he did reminded him of Blaine;

Oh, you can jump off the stage? Blaine could have jumped twice that distance.

Moulin Rouge? This means nothing to us.

You want to hold hands? But my hand doesn't fit as nicely in yours.

Basically, Adam would have had to constantly live up to Kurt's expectations. But he would never meet them, because they were expectations that only Blaine could meet.

If anyone else tried, they were just wasting their time.

Kurt knew it was bad, but the shooting was the thing that made him realise that he could overlook Blaine's mistakes-mistake, he corrected. Sure it wasn't ideal, but they do say that you never really know what you have until you've lost it.

Too bad it took Kurt almost losing Blaine to see how much he needed him.

How much they needed each other.

Beside him, Blaine stirred. His head turned to the left and then the right, before he cracked open his eyes and the golden orbs stared up at Kurt. The older teen smiled, "Hey. You have a visitor."

Cooper's eyes crinkled in amusement as he watched his younger brother's eyebrows scrunch in confusion. The look then turned into one of pity, as he saw him try to sit up before remembering the sling around his arm and the wheelchair not too far away from him.

Kurt gently re-positioned the two of them, so that Blaine was leaning against him.

"Cooper?"

"Hey, squirt." There was no pointing. No shouting. No playful banter. Just a greeting between two brothers.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were in LA."

"Well I was. But do you really think that I'm going to stay in LA and film when I find out that my little brother is in the hospital?" There was a small hint of hurt in his voice, but Kurt knew that the hurt wasn't directed at Blaine, it was directed at himself for not being there at the hospital.

"What about the movie?"

"I'm sure they can make another Transformers movie without me."

Then he smiled. A smile that Blaine hadn't shown any of the New Directions. One that he hadn't shown Kurt. It was a smile that only Cooper could cause.

Because Blaine was safe in the knowledge, that his brother cared more about him, than he thought.

Screw Optimus Prime indeed.


	18. The Quaterback

Finn was the first one to wake up the next morning. He came down the stairs to the sight of Kurt and Blaine both asleep on the couch, the latter of whom was safe in his boyfriends arms. Cooper was sat in the same place he had been when he first arrived and he too was asleep. It made him smile to think that Kurt had found someone like Blaine, someone who was into the same things as him, someone who wasn't afraid to show the world that he was in love-someone who had been knocked down in the past, but had gotten straight back up again.

Finn admired him for that. Blaine had the sort of attitude that made him perfect for Kurt, just like Finn had the sort of attitude that made him perfect as Kurt's brother.

He had to admit, he was a little unsure about it at first, and he had said some things that he hadn't meant, but he liked to think that his relationship with Kurt had improved a lot.

Especially after he found out the whole truth about Karofsky.

Finn walked past the two lovers on the couch and walked straight into the kitchen and opening the fridge door. He pulled out the milk and poured himself a bowl of cereal, before heading back into the lounge with his breakfast.

Deciding that waking up the two boys on the couch to make room would be a little harsh, he settled for sitting in the middle of the floor instead. As he finished off the last of his Lucky Charms, Blaine's eyes started to blink open.

Finn looked to Cooper and found that he was still asleep, as was Kurt. So it was just him and Blaine awake. From his position on the couch, Blaine looked down and blushed. Finn frowned, confused and genuinely concerned, "Everything okay, Blaine?"

"I-uh-I need the toilet."

"The what?"

"The toilet."

"Oh."

Recognition dawned on Finn as he realised why Blaine had blushed, of course he was going to be embarrassed about something like that. Is eyebrows raised, again in recognition and he jumped to his feet, "Here, man, I'll help you."

The surprise on Blaine's face was priceless, but Finn brushed it off and bent down. He positioned one arm underneath Blaine's knees and the other just under his arms and lifted him up.

Blaine muttered his thanks into Finn's chest as he started up the stairs, "Don't worry about it, man. It's nothing."

They managed to make it to the bathroom without waking Burt or Carole up, and Blaine was grateful for that, at least. Finn brought him further in and locked the door behind them. Blaine may have been a little embarrassed about the whole situation but after quick reassurance from Finn, he felt a lot more comfortable.

Finn didn't say a word, he just sat Blaine down, and turned away as he did what he needed to do. Then, when he was done he did what was necessary and carried him gently all the way back down.

When they reached the last step, Kurt was beginning to wake up. He bolted up in confusion when he couldn't see Blaine in his arms and looked on the floor next to the couch and then behind it. When he still couldn't see him, Kurt began to panic.

"Kurt, I'm over here."

The panic subsided when Kurt saw his boyfriend with his brother, and he sat back down. Finn lowered Blaine next to Kurt and took the now empty space next to Blaine. The three teens sat in silence for the next half hour, until Cooper woke up.

"Morning squirt, morning guys."

"Morning Coop."

"Cooper, do you need to get some clothes or something, since you're going to be staying for a while?"

"Yeah, I was hoping to go into town today."

"Do you mind if I come along? I need to get a few things for dinner tonight."

"Sure, Kurt. Come along."

Exactly 1 hour and 21 minutes later, Kurt and Cooper left for town, Burt and Carole had emerged from upstairs, and after giving Blaine his medicine, Carole had been taken out to breakfast by Burt, meaning Finn and Blaine were left alone.

"Thank you, Finn. For earlier, I mean."

"Don't worry about it, man. We're family."

"Family?"

"Yeah, well-we're going to be family some day, aren't we? So we might as well get used to it now. Speaking of, though-are you, like-going to propose to Kurt one day?"

There was a genuine smile on Finn's face, and Blaine found it so much easier to fall into conversation with him than he had done when he first transferred to McKinley, but now, as they both sat watching whatever was playing on TV he felt as if he could say anything to Finn.

"I'm not sure, I mean-I want to, but it's Kurt, you know? We've only just got back together, and if I was to propose to him, it would have to be pretty special. So it's something I want to do. Do you think he'd say yes?"

"He would totally say yes! Dude, seriously, he is crazy about you, but when you do get married, can I be your best man?"

Blaine laughed, "I think you might have to battle it out with Wes for that role."

"What? That Warbler dude? I think I can handle him."

"What about you and Rachel, though? Do you think you'll get back together?"

Finn shrugged, "I don't know, man. We're closer than before, and let's be honest, we're end game-but she's starting to find herself in New York, so I'm going to let her find her place, then I think I'm going to surprise her. What do you think?"

"I think you should do it. You and Rachel are like me and Kurt, and some day, we're going to be one crazy, loud, extremely musically gifted family. Let her know sooner rather than later, though, because I don't want you to lose her."

Finn raised an arm and patted Blaine's shoulder, "Thanks man."

Then he pulled out his phone, "Finn? What's up?"

"I'm just doing something I should have done a while ago."

To: Rach  
I love you <3


	19. Back to school

"Blaine, come on-don't you think it's a little too soon to be going back?"

"No, Kurt-I don't. Come on, it's been a week."

"I just think it's too soon."

"Think what's too soon?"

Both boys turned to see Burt enter the room. Neither one of them felt the need to answer straight away, but once Burt had asked the question again, Kurt spoke up, "Blaine wants to go back to school."

"And you think that's too soon?"

"Yeah. Help me out here, dad. What do you think about it?"

"Well-if Blaine thinks he's ready for it, I don't see why not."

Seeing that there was absolutely no way Kurt was going to win this one, he just gave up. He threw his arms up in the air dramatically and went off sulking into the other room. Burt chuckled and looked at Blaine, but pointed at Kurt, "Now that, he gets from his mother."

"Do you really think I'm ready to go back? What if Kurt's right? What if it is too soon?"

Burt sighed and crouched down to Blaine's level. He placed a gentle hand on his knee, only managing to make the wheelchair move back a little and looked into his eyes, "Honestly, kid. I think you're both right. It has only been a week, but if you think you're ready to go back, then I think you should do it. I know that once Kurt comes around, he'll see why you want to get back so soon, and besides-I'm sure Finn will keep an eye out for you."

Blaine nodded, "Thanks Burt."

"Don't worry about it, but I got some more news, the hospital rang, the Doc wants to take a look at that shoulder of yours, he reckons you could be out of that today" He glanced at his watch, "Oh, but we have to go now. Good thing you're dressed, hey?"

Burt shouted to Kurt, to check if he wanted to come with them, but Kurt was helping Carole with dinner. Cooper was available, though, so as soon as the older Anderson had rushed down the stairs, they were off.

The three men were in and out of the hospital within one hour, and back home within two. When they returned, Blaine was no longer in a sling, meaning he had the use of both arms, and was able to wheel himself in.

Kurt greeted him as they came through the door, a half peeled carrot in his hand, "I'm sorry, Blaine. If you want to go back to school, that's completely up to you."

Blaine smiled and shared a look with Burt, as the older man raised his eyebrows and tilted his head in a, see-I told you so-kind of way.

The following Monday, everything had been sorted out, the papers had all been signed and Blaine was free to go back to school.

Cooper had to fly back out to LA-but he had promised to come down every weekend, with Burt and Carole's permission, and Kurt had to fly out to New York, but he had promised to Skype.

Finn had offered him a lift in, though. He said that anything Blaine needed, he would be there for him, and that he could talk to him at any time.

Finn had to be there early, for some meeting with Mr Schue, and he hadn't told anyone from the New Directions that he was coming back, not even Mr Schue, so nobody would be expecting him.

Having to be there early meant that the halls were empty, a factor for which Blaine was grateful for. He wheeled alongside Finn as they made their way to the staff room, purposely ignoring the janitor's closet on his way.

As soon as they got through the door, Will looked up from his conversation with Emma. He broke into a huge grin as he saw them, "Blaine! It's good to see you back! Are you coming back to school now?"

He nodded, the smile evident on his face, "Yeah! Burt sorted everything out with Mr Figgins at the weekend."  
"Well, it's good to see you back. Have you told the New Directions?"

He shook his head, "Not yet. I was hoping to surprise them,"  
"Well, they're going to be very surprised to see you, I'm sure."

Twenty minutes went by with the three just discussing things, Finn and Will's meeting long forgotten, but as the bell rang signalling the start of the day, Blaine took a deep breath, knowing that when he left, the halls would be jam packed.

"Blaine? Everything okay? Do you want to leave it a few minutes so it will be quieter?"  
"Please."  
"Okay."

By the time Will strolled into Glee Practice, 5 minutes late, the New Directions looked just about ready to throw something at him. He just smiled, and held out his hands, "I'm sorry I was a little late, I was just making sure that one of our members could get here okay."

"One of our members? Do we have a new member joining us?"

"Not exactly. Come on in!"

Blaine pushed himself through the door and paused in the middle of the room. He allowed everyone to greet him and almost smother him with their hugs, and then sat out as he was filled in with their new set list.

He waited until everyone had left the room, before wheeling over to the room's last occupant, before he exited, "Hey, wait!"


	20. Learning the ropes

Artie spun around and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "Oh, hey Blaine, what's up?"  
"I need your help with something."  
"Sure, what do you need?"

Blaine let his hands fall away from the wheels, and he folded them in his lap, "I-uh-well, I'm not really that familiar with this thing yet, and I know it sounds a bit strange, but I was hoping you could help me out a little? You know, show me the ropes?"

Artie smiled, and unhooked the brakes on his own chair, "Yeah, sure thing Blaine, We've got a free period now anyway. Wheel with me."

Shaking his head and chuckling a little at the seriousness of it all, Blaine followed Artie through the now empty halls.

"Okay, first thing's first-either have someone else from the Glee Club walk around with you to carry your bags, or only pack things in there that are absolutely essential, because if you fill your bag with too much stuff and you hang that on the back of your chair-you are going down. No doubt-you're going to tip right over."

"Okay…so, know the laws of physics?" and although the question was sarcastic, and dragged out, there was a hint of teasing in his voice.

Continuing to push himself with one hand, Artie held up his left hand, pointer finger raised, "Exactly. Next, when you're in class, sit right at the back. There's more space at the back, and nobody can throw things at you. I'm not saying they will-I'm just saying they might want to, but sitting at the back stops them from doing that because they would have to turn around-and that would draw the teacher's attention to them."

"Okay-anything else?"

"Yeah, In between lessons, get somebody else to walk with you-so people aren't tempted to tip you, for the first week or so, anyway-by then the novelty would have worn off."

They came to a stop by one of the double doors at the furthest end of the school. Artie backed up against it and stayed to the side long enough for Blaine to push himself out. There was a small ramp that Blaine had to brace himself for, because it took him by surprise-he had never had any trouble with it before, but now he was much closer to the ground.

Then, like a pro-Artie closed the door with one hand and simply allowed himself to roll down.

"Okay, so-can you remember last year, after Quinn got hit by that truck?"

He nodded, "Yeah."

"Well, I basically did this with her, but I think you might be a little better at it than she was, because you probably have a little more upper body strength than she did, follow me, young Jedi."

Artie led him to one of the accessibility ramps that was just outside the staff room, nobody was in the staff room, because they were all teaching, so nobody was around to see him if he fell and humiliated himself-probably one of the reasons why Artie had chosen this particular ramp.

Something which Blaine was grateful for.

With four pushes, Artie was up, and he made it look so easy, but Blaine stayed at the bottom anyway, just like Artie had asked, "Okay, so basically Blaine, all you have to do is focus your entire body on getting up here. Use all of your strength in your arms and push yourself up. Lean forward a little as well, to give you that extra push, because if you lean back, then your just wasting your energy. Keep close to the railings so if you feel like you're going to fall, you can just grab on to it and I'll come and help you, but you can do this."

Sucking a deep breath in, Blaine did just as Artie had asked. He looked at where Artie was, right at the very top and concentrated on that spot only. He didn't feel the burn in his muscles until he had reached the half way mark, and by that time he could feel the resistance, threatening to pull him , not wanting to let something like air resistance hold him back, he pushed harder and with three final pushes, and an extra hand from Artie, Blaine had made it.

There were small beads of sweat on his forehead, so Blaine wiped them off with one quick brush of his hand.

Artie held up his hand for a high five-something Blaine couldn't refuse, and punched the air with his other, "Yes! Incredible, man! Oh, I forgot to tell you-whenever you're not moving in your chair-you have to keep the brakes on. Imagine it like a car-if you forget to leave them on and you're at the top of the hill, then you're just going to roll back down. So, just remember that."

"I will, thanks, Artie."  
"Don't worry about it. Come on, I'll show you where the rest of the ramps are."

There were seven ramps in total-outside the school, anyway-and Blaine had memorised the positioning of all of them. He thanked Artie again when he had shown him the basics of what to do and what not to do at lunch times, but again, Artie had just told him that it wasn't a problem.

"So, now that you have the basics covered, do you want to learn something cool?"  
"Sure."  
"Follow me, then. I think the auditorium's free."

When they had reached the auditorium and were in the middle of the stage, Artie leaned back in his chair, effectively pulling a wheelie, and after teaching Blaine that move, and seeing him pull it off perfectly, he was struck with an idea.

"Hey, Blaine, what are you doing tonight?"  
"Nothing, as far as I'm aware. Why?"  
"Do you want to come over mine? I have a great idea for Glee Club."


	21. Pizzas and lifesavers

"Yeah, I'd love to come over."

"Awesome. You have my address right?"

"Yeah, but I have your number anyway-so if I get lost or anything then we're all good. Do you want me to bring anything?"

Artie thought for a minute, "No-I don't think so. Just yourself?"

They both smiled, before the bell sounded and they both went their separate ways-Blaine to History, and Artie to Spanish.

The end of the day came around quicker than Blaine expected it to. He was allowed to leave earlier than the rest of the class though, as his last class was with Mr Schue, and he understood that he was either going to have to leave early or late, if he wanted to avoid the crowded halls.

He met Finn outside the building as planned and allowed himself to be half lifted into the passenger seat of his car (half hauling himself in, and his wheelchair being placed on the back seats). When Finn had buckled himself in, he started their way back to the Hummels.

Most of the conversation of the ride back consisted of Blaine's first day back at school, and if he found it too hard or if anyone gave him any trouble. He hadn't told Blaine this, but Finn had kept his eye on Blaine all day, protecting him from a distance, but ready to step in if he was needed.

Blaine was just telling Finn about Artie teaching him the ropes when the two men pulled into the drive way. He carried on, even when Finn lifted him out and sat him in his chair, and was just getting to the part about being invited to his house as they stepped through the door.

"I'm not too sure what he has planned yet, but I have to check with Burt and see if it's okay first."

"Check to see if what's okay?"

Burt was standing in the door way of the kitchen; a damp dish cloth in his hand.

"Artie's invited Blaine to his house tonight; he wants to know if it's alright for him to go."

"Yeah, it should be fine kiddo. I'll drop you off and pick you back up again if you like?"

Blaine smiled, and nodded in response, "That would be great, thanks Burt."

"Don't worry about it. I'll even stop at that pizza place down the road if you want? So you two don't have to worry about food. Check with Artie."

Finn, only just realising that he had left the front door open, leaned back and pushed it shut as Blaine slid his phone out of his front pocket and pulled up Artie's number. Selecting the 'send message' option, he double checked with Burt that it was alright before texting him.

Hey, Mr Hummel said that he can drop me off today, and he'll get some pizza on the way if you want any?

Two minutes later, his phone buzzed.

That sounds like a great plan! I forgot that my mom's on a course today and I'm clueless in the kitchen. Tell Mr Hummel that he's a life saver! Also, come round whenever you want.

Blaine chuckled, and Burt raised an eyebrow, "What's so funny?"

"Artie said that you're a lifesaver."

"I take it he wants the pizza, then?"

"Yeah. He said that I can go round his whenever tonight."

"Well we can go now if you like-avoid the traffic and the rush."

"Sure."

Finn opened the door for them, and helped get Blaine in the car again, but turned towards the house when Burt climbed in the car.

"Don't you want to come, Finn?"

"No, thanks-I promised Puck that I'd call him, let him know how Blaine's getting on-"

"Puck?"

"Yeah, Blaine-dude-he was like, really worried when he found out, he really wants to know how you're doing. Anyway, Burt-could you possibly bring me back a pizza, please? With meat?"

"Sure Finn."

"Tell Puck I said hey, Finn. Have fun."

"Will do, Blaine, and you too!"

Finn watched as Burt drove away and took out his phone, before stepping inside and calling Puck, this time, remembering to close the door behind him.


	22. Artie's plan

Blaine had been to Artie's house a few times before, but he never really took the time to notice it before. As he pushed himself up the ramp leading up to the front door, he took a moment to look around and just...take it all in.

He noticed how there was not one stone out of place on the drive way, how the plants to the right were arranged in an extremely straight line, how the paint on the door was fading near the bottom.

The doorbell wasn't too high up for him, so he was able to press it in for 2 seconds, before placing his hands in his lap, on top of the pizza that he had brought. A few seconds later, Artie answered the door. His head was turned in the other direction at first, but then he turned to face Blaine completely and broke into a smile.

"You're here. Right on time, too."

"I'm in time for what?" He frowned in confusion, but followed Artie into the house anyway.

Instead of answering, Artie just smiled and continued into the living room. The moment Blaine entered, the lights were clicked on and people were jumping up from behind sofas and under coffee tables. He looked around and his eyes widened, nearly tearing up at the sight.

The room was filled with New Directions, old and new and some of the Warblers. Mr Schue was near the back with Emma, Coach Bieste and Sue. Blaine wasn't surprised to not find any of the teachers from Dalton-after all, they were pretty hard to find at school, never mind at the end of the day.

They all shouted surprise simultaneously and almost immediately, Artie's large stereo system started blasting through the house. Artie clapped him on the shoulder and looked him dead in the eye, not breaking eye contact or removing his hand until he had finished speaking.

"Blaine, we just wanted you to know that we all love you, and we are all here for you, even if it's at the end of the phone, like these guys-" he motioned towards the Warblers, "Or in the choir room. Like us. You have taken this so much better than I did when I had my accident, and for that, I admire you. We just wanted to say thank you. For everything."

He let his hand drop and allowed Blaine the time to take it all in. Before everyone could start crying though, Artie threw his hands in the air and took the boxes of pizza from Blaine, instructing everyone to dig in-now Blaine understood why Burt had bought so many...he must have been in on it.

He also noticed Puck and Finn in a corner, talking-which would explain the detour that Burt had taken which ended up making the journey ten times longer than it needed to be-he probably waited until everyone had arrived.

He excused himself from Artie and wheeled himself over to the boys. Scratching the back of his head, Blaine greeted Puck, "Listen-Puck, Finn told me that you were worried. I uh-I didn't mean to make you worry or anything, but it really means a lot to me that you care."

Puck laughed, "I care a lot more than I show people, but you're one of my boys and if you're hurt then of course I'm going to be worried. You're going to be alright though, aren't you?"

"I'm going to be just fine, Puck. Just fine."

The evening continued with loud music and way too much pizza than necessary. Deciding that 15 finished boxes between them wasn't enough, Sam pulled out his phone and ordered seven more.

"Sam, do you really think we're going to need seven?"

"Dude, you can never have too much pizza."

Strangely enough, nobody consumed any alcohol, at all. So when the doorbell rang 10 minutes later, everybody was sober enough to answer it. Looking up from a text he had just received on his phone, Artie smiled, "Blaine, that's probably the pizza guy. Do you want to go and get them?"

"Sure." He shrugged and wheeled over to the door, opening it. When he looked up, it wasn't who he expected.

It wasn't the pizza guy at all.

Two figures stood in the door way, each one carrying a suitcase.

Blaine looked up at the two men and broke out into a huge grin.

"Hi."


	23. Who's at the door?

Stood in front of Blaine were the two people he admired most on the world.

"So come on then squirt-are you going to invite us in?"

Blaine nodded and moved back slightly so the door could open fully, the smile never once leaving his face.

Cooper stepped in immediately, clapping a hand on Blaine's shoulder, matching the younger boy's smile, "How are you doing baby brother?"

"I don't-but I thought-"

"See, that's where you're going wrong; an Anderson should never think. It gets us in all sorts of trouble."

"Speaking from experience are you Coop?"

At the sound of his voice, Blaine turned to look at the other visitor, "Hey Kurt."

Kurt, instead of replying, chose to answer Blaine by setting his suitcase down, perching on his lap and leaning closer to his face. The two shared a quick kiss before they were joined in the hallway by everyone else, Artie at the head.

"Kurt and Cooper! Oh my! What's a surprise that I along with everybody else here knew absolutely nothing about!"

Blaine's head spun round to face him, "You did this? How did you manage to do that? Cooper is supposed to be filming right now, and Kurt should be in school."

"Well, there's a guy working with Cooper and he kind of owes me a favour, so I just cashed that favour in and got him to agree to letting Cooper fly out to stay here for a bit longer-but as for Kurt, actually-"

"That was me." Artie nodded in Santana's direction.

"Berry said that Kurt was pretty bummed about having to stay in school whilst you're here, and about the fact that Rachel didn't have school for a bit, so I did something about it-nobody was harmed though, so it's totally cool. Let's just say that you shouldn't be surprised if you hear some news about NYADA being closed for a while due to a rat infestation."

"Santana you hate rats."

"I know-but there are plenty of people that don't. Especially when I show them the dirt that I have on them for blackmail."

"So you did all that, just so Kurt could be here."

"Well when you say it like that, it makes me sound soppy, but of course. There are very few things worse than a pouty Hummel. He just looks like a kicked squirrel. Besides, you're not so bad, Anderson."

She made her way over to them and ruffled Blaine's curls, before hugging him-well, as best as she could with Kurt sat on his lap.

They stayed like that for a while, nobody really wanting to break them apart. Before she pulled away, she just managed to hear him say a "Thank you, San" into the material of her dress, and she smiled back at him, before walking back.

There was another knock at the door, and everyone looked at each other in confusion, before looking over to Artie for some answers, "Well don't look at me, I didn't plan this."

"Oh!"

Sam pulled himself away from the group clumsily, arms flailing, before practically sprinting to the door, pulling his wallet from his pocket.

He opened the door, and pulled out a few twenties in exchange for the boxes in the skinny teen's hands. Closing the door behind him, he grinned and held out his arms for the others to see.

"It was the pizza guy, dudes!"


	24. A heart to heart with Artie

Blaine’s surprise party had lasted well into the night, but it had to come to an end eventually, and as everyone left, he hung back and waited until he was alone with Artie.

“Oh, hey Blaine. What’s going on my brother?”

Artie had had a little bit to drink.

“Artie, I just wanted to say thank you. You didn’t have to do all this, and I want you to know that although I haven’t been in this chair long, I’ve been in it for long enough to realise that what you go through on a day to day basis-I mean, it’s hard man. And I have so much more respect for you now. Like, I understand it a lot more now, and I wanted to let you know that, you are one of the strongest people I know, and I want to thank you for everything. Not just for tonight, but for everything.”

The other boy shrugged, “You get used to it after a while, but there are still some down days, you know? Luckily, you’re gonna go through rehab and you’ll be up on your feet in no time so hopefully it won’t get to that stage, but after a while, you start looking at the positives about it rather than the negatives.”

“Yeah? Like what?”  
“Well. I’m never going to have to climb the stairs.”

They laughed for a short while.

“It’s okay though, it’s not too bad. Anyway, I think Burt’s out there waiting for you, so you better get going, but listen-you have my number, so if you ever need anything, just like-call, yeah?”

He went in for a fistbump, but it ended up being a really awkward action that ended up with Artie’s fist in Blaine’s lap.

Artie sniggered and slapped his own knee, “Alright, man-I’ll see you soon.”

“See you later Artie.”

As the door shut behind Blaine, one of the canvases fell off of the wall, causing Artie to burst out laughing, yet again.

“Artie, sweetie? You need a hand cleaning up in there?”  
“Yes please, mom! That’d be great!”

Boy, he was going to pay for this in the morning.


	25. Physical Therapy

A week had passed since Artie’s surprise party for Blaine and everyone had eventually slept off their hangovers. Blaine and Artie had become closer and had started spending more time together both during, and after school.

Cooper had stuck around, as had Kurt, and life literally couldn’t be better for the younger Anderson.

Burt sat and smiled as he thought about Blaine and the man he had turned into-he had finally started calling him by his first name and he could see how much more relaxed he had become in the Hummel household.

He looked up and smiled as Blaine and Artie came into view, “Hey, guys!”  
“Sup, Mr Hummel?”  
“Hey, Burt! Um, Artie’s gotta go now because his mom’s outside but thanks for letting him come over and everything.”  
“Don’t worry about it, I’ll see you later Artie!”

Both Burt and Blaine watched as Artie left and waved him off. When Artie had gone, Burt gestured for Blaine to join him on the couch and the younger man complied, focussing all of his energy into shifting from his chair to the couch using only his hands.

Burt leant forward to catch him when it looked as if he was about to fall and he remained on the edge of his seat, ready to catch him if he did.

“You good?”  
“I’m okay.”

“Listen, Blaine-your doctor called today.”

He frowned, confused.

“Really?”  
“Yeah. They want to try and start your physical therapy tomorrow. I know you said that you’ve started to regain feeling in your legs so I told the doc and they think it would be better if you started your physical therapy sooner rather than later.”  
“I see.”

If he was being completely honest, Burt was expecting a little more than just two words; he expected Blaine to have some opinion on the matter.

“Do you think you’re ready for it?”  
“I don’t know.”

Burt patted Blaine’s knee, letting him know that it was okay-a signal for him to continue.

“I mean, I haven’t really given it much thought, but if the doctor thinks it would be good then it’s worth a shot I guess.”  
“I think it’ll be good for you. I’ll take you there and pick you back up, and if you want me to stay then I will. It’s completely up to you.”

Blaine was about to thank him when Kurt walked through the door, so instead, he chose to smile at him in a silent thank you.

Burt helped him back into his chair and they all joined Carole in the kitchen to help her with dinner.

Blaine didn’t sleep at all that night. He didn’t need to tell Kurt why because he already knew, so instead, Kurt spent the night with his arms wrapped around Blaine, occasionally pressing soft kisses against his scalp, and Blaine spent the night wide awake, breathing in and savouring Kurt’s scent.

Although he was practically living with his future in laws, he genuinely couldn’t remember ever feeling as safe as he did that night.

So when morning came, although he hadn’t had a minute of sleep, he was okay. He sat with Kurt and ate breakfast and at one o’clock, he joined Burt in his car where they set off.

Their car journey lasted just under an hour and luckily for him, Blaine was able to sleep the entire way there. Burt thought nothing of it, because he could see how worried Blaine was about today and decided to just let him sleep.

“Hey, Blaine-wake up kid, we’re here.”

Blaine was a little confused when he woke up but he soon snapped out of it when he realised where he was.

Burt chuckled.

“Easy, kid. You want me to take you in, make sure you get to the right place?”  
“Actually, Burt-would you mind staying with me? It’s just-I know you offered and everything, and I would really like it if you stayed.”

“Of course I’ll stay with you kiddo. Come on-we should get going.”

The woman at the front desk was nice. She looked way too young to be working full time but at the same time she looked like there was nothing that she hadn’t seen.

And that put Blaine’s mind at rest. He felt less subconscious and a lot less worried.

Burt got him booked in and together they followed the young woman down a very long hallway into the last room on the right.

There was another woman already waiting for them, but she was a little older than the woman at the front desk.

This woman had grey hair, wiry, round glasses and smelled a little of cats and peaches.

“Hello sweetie, my name is Mandy and I’m gonna be working very closely with you over the next few months to see if we can get you back up on your feet. Okay?”  
“Okay.”  
“Great. So we’re not going to start with anything too strenuous to begin with. I just want you to follow me over here real quick, can you do that for me?”

He nodded and both he and Burt followed Mandy over to the other side of the room where there were two metal bars on either side of a padded crash mat.

“Now if you could just pull yourself up onto here for me, and your dad can help you if you want.”

Burt went to correct her but when he saw Blaine smile and look up to him, silently asking for his help, he thought again.

He lifted Blaine from behind and stood just one step behind him as Blaine’s muscles strained with the tension of supporting his body weight on the two metal bars, ready to catch him if he fell backwards, but also wanting to give Blaine the independence he needed.

“Okay that’s wonderful Blaine, now I just want you to get to the end of this. Don’t worry if you can’t because the crash mat is below you if you fall, but I want you to try and get as far as you can, can you give that a go for me?”

Slowly and shakily, Blaine lifted up his left leg. He wasn’t able to lift it very far, but he was able to get it a couple of inches of the ground and move it forward slightly. His right leg was a little more difficult and he was only able to raise his right foot enough so that nothing but his toes touched the mat. Toes brushing against the blue crash mat, he dragged his foot across to meet his left leg.

Then he repeated the process until he reached the end of the bar, where he dropped to the crash mat, sweating and utterly exhausted.

Burt had to admit, he was a little impressed; Blaine was a lot stronger than he looked.

It was clear to all of them that he had regained more feeling in his left leg than his right because he wasn’t able to get his toes off the mat, but was able to lift his left leg a few inches of the floor every time. 

Mandy made a note on a small clipboard before addressing the two of them again.

“That was great, you’re already making excellent progress Blaine, keep it up. Okay, so we need to head over to that bed now, so I’ll just get your chair for you-”

Burt stopped her and instead bent down to pick Blaine up. With Blaine in his arms, he walked over to the black, leather bed that Mandy had pointed to and lay Blaine down on top of it.

Mandy brought his chair over anyway and handed it to Burt who folded it up and moved it so it was leaning against the wall. Then, he stood at the head of the bed with a hand on Blaine’s shoulder as Mandy sat at the foot of the bed on her computer chair.

She picked up Blaine’s left foot and placed the palm of her hand against the sole of his foot. 

“Can you push against my hand as hard as you can, Blaine?”

Blaine tried and squeezed his eyes shut as he focussed on pushing his foot towards her. Just like before with walking, he was able to move her hand a little, but even that exhausted him.

Next, they did the same with his right foot, but he wasn’t able to move her hand at all.

She frowned and wrote something else down, before looking back up at Blaine and smiling.

“Okay, Blaine, I think we’re all done here. I have a few things that I need to talk to you doctor about but it’s nothing to worry about, so now all we need to do is schedule your next appointment.”

She took out a small card and pen and looked at him, expectantly.

Blaine looked to Burt and shrugged-he had no idea what to say.

Luckily, Burt did.

He chuckled, clapped a hand on his shoulder and looked at Mandy.

“How about same time next week?”

She checked her diary before writing something down on the small card which she gave to Burt.

“That’s perfect. Okay so if you go hand this to Savannah at reception she’ll book this in for you, but until then, if you could keep trying to get your son to push against your hand with both feet that would be great-it just keeps the muscles active, that’s all.”

“Okay, no worries, thank you ma’am. Right, come on then kiddo-we should get going.”

He looked down at Blaine, but was surprised to find him fast asleep.

He was unfazed by this though, and unfolded his chair, before picking Blaine up and gently lowering him down into it.

Then he waved goodbye to Mandy and started to push Blaine out the door.

With his next appointment sorted, he got him strapped into the car, with his chair in the back-by which time, he had woken up.

“You know, I’m proud of you kid.”  
“Thank you, Burt.”  
“No, really, I am. I’ve got one question though-why didn’t you correct her when she called me your dad?”

Blaine sighed; he knew this was coming.

“Burt, you are the only decent father figure I’ve had in my life. My dad was more interested in Cooper and Cooper was more interested in acting-growing up, of course. I can’t deny that Cooper is much better now, but he’s my brother, and I’ve never seen him as a father figure-but you were there for me, and you forgave me, even when all that stuff went down between me and Kurt, and if I’m being completely honest, before I met Kurt, I wasn’t even sure that decent fathers existed, but you and Carole have given me so much more than a roof over my head-you’ve given me a second chance-a second chance with Kurt, and a second chance at experiencing life with parents, and I am never going to be able to thank you enough for that. Burt, I didn’t correct her because I already view you as a father, my father.”

“You know what, Blaine? I would be proud to call you my son.”  
“Thank you, Burt.”

His phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled it out, staring down at it in confusion.

“What is it?”  
“It’s a text from Artie. He says he wants to talk.”


	26. A Phonecall

As soon as they got home, Blaine excused himself to his bedroom to phone Artie. Ever since he got the text, his mind was racing; a million thoughts running through his head at once. Immediately, he thought of the worst case scenario, but he couldn’t help it. He wondered if Artie was mad at him for anything, and he wondered if there was something he had done wrong. 

Maybe he had been insensitive at some point.

But, to his surprise, that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Artie picked up the phone in his usual manner, with some greeting Blaine had heard only in the movies. It went something along the lines of ‘what’s going on my brother?’ but Blaine was so fixated on how he was going to apologise for whatever it was that he had done wrong that he didn’t pay that much attention.

“Hey, Artie. Um, have I done something wrong?”

He could feel his own heart beating in his chest.

“What? No, are you kidding me? Why would you think that?”  
“Well, the text was kind of ominous.”  
“Oh, yeah. That. Sorry, I was eating dinner and I’ve got my priorities man, you know?”

He chuckled and Blaine, no longer worrying that he was in the wrong, took great pleasure in joining him.

“So, what’s up?”  
“Oh! Right, yeah! How was therapy?”

That was it?

That was what he wanted to talk about?

His therapy session?

“Oh, it was good, I guess.”

The surprise was evident in his hesitation.

There was a silence on the other end of the line, but that was only because Artie was waiting for Blaine to continue. When it became clear that Blaine was not going to continue on his own accord, Artie decided that a little prompting may have been necessary.

“Are you going to expand on that at all, or…”

Again, Blaine hesitated.

“Are you okay with me telling you all of this?”  
“All of what?”  
“You know, everything about my therapy sessions?”  
“Why wouldn’t I be?”

Blaine sighed. He was really hoping that Artie would understand what he was getting at, and that he wouldn’t have to explain, but to his dismay, he was forced to try.

“Well, you know…”

He trailed off; one last attempt at getting Artie to finish his train of thought.

“Oh! You mean because I’m stuck like this, right? And you’re afraid to tell me just in case I get mad at you for something neither you or I can control?”

He sighed again, but this time in relief.

“I…well, yeah.”  
“Listen, Blaine. What happened to me happened years ago, and, as tragic as it was, I’m over it, and I’ve accepted it. Just because therapy wasn’t an option for me, it doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be for you. I’m happy for you, and the sooner you get back on your feet – literally – the better. Okay?”

He laughed.

“Okay.”  
“Good. Now, tell me. How was the damn therapy session?”

Blaine spent another hour on the phone with Artie. He told him everything that had happened that day – including Mandy mistaking Burt for his dad and the conversation between the two men that had followed.

It was during that time that Blaine realised what a good person Artie was. Not only was he a good friend, but he was just a good person in general, and it was with a sad, heavy heart that Blaine realised for years the Glee club had been taking advantage of him.

Not intentionally, of course. 

But one way or another, it had happened.

And as soon as he hung up the phone, he made a promise to himself, that regardless of what it would take, or how long it would take, he was going to show Artie that he was appreciated.


	27. Operation Appreciate Artie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I cannot apologise enough for my lack of presence. I'm on a Performing Arts course so life has been hectic with shows, pantomimes, and teching stuff. But I'm off for the summer now so more chapters and stories to come. Feel free to prompt me - come find me on Tumblr (I'm under the same name).
> 
> Much love.

“Operation Appreciate Artie” started off simple; he made sure to choose him in the next duet competition in Glee. Even though he and Sam had been preparing a song for weeks just in case they ever got a chance to show it off, once he explained the situation to Sam, he was more than happy to let him duet with Artie. 

Artie was surprised at first, but excited nonetheless. 

Then, for the next few weeks it was a daily coffee. The first few times he attempted to bring him a coffee, he had spilled it all over himself – but that was most likely because he was attempting to simultaneously carry his own. He soon found a way to combat this, however; he would drink his coffee first and then buy Artie’s.

“Blaine, man, you know you don’t have to keep buying me coffee, right?”

He shrugged, smiling, “I know.”

And then he went to class. 

He kept working at showing Artie he was appreciated, but between school, therapy, Kurt and everything else life chose to throw at him, he was finding it a little hard.

He had to move his plan to the background when he started to spend more time with Artie than he did with Kurt. In the few minutes he had spare before Glee, he sent Kurt a text informing him that later that night he would be treated to a meal – and a movie – of his choice.

Kurt’s reply was merely a heart and Blaine smiled, pocketing his phone as Mr Schue entered the room.

He was surprised to see Kurt waiting for him in the car park. He was supposed to be working at the garage and Burt was supposed to be picking him up, but after he had received the text, the two men had switched places.

Kurt had chosen Breadsticks as his restaurant of choice; Blaine didn’t protest.

“So how’s Glee?”  
“It’s cool. We’re heading into intense rehearsals now; I’m hoping I won’t have to be in this thing for the competition.”  
“Really?”  
“Yeah! I think If I work really hard at my next few therapy sessions I can get there.”  
“Well I have every faith in you.”

Blaine smiled, and his hand reached across the table to rest on top of Kurt’s.

“I’m sorry we haven’t been able to spend much time together recently. Its just, I wanted to show Artie –”  
“Blaine – we practically live together. I think you can be excused for not being able to go on a few dates. Besides, I think what you’re doing for Artie is amazing.”  
“So you don’t mind?”  
“Do you think I would be here if I did?”

There was a playful tone to his voice, and the two of them shared a laugh.

Blaine paid for the meal, and dessert, and then the movie and all of the snacks involved. Kurt tried to chip in, but Blaine managed to get the money into the cashier’s hands before Kurt could even reach for his wallet. 

“I’m paying for the next one.”  
“If you say so.”

The movie was incredible. Kurt assured him that it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that it starred a guy he had recently developed a crush on. 

So of course Blaine assured him that he 100% believed him but it was okay, because he could see the attraction. 

His acting was pretty good, too. 

When they arrived back home everyone else was asleep. There was a letter on the coffee table addressed to Blaine, and he frowned as he picked it up and began to read.

“Who’s it from?”  
“It’s from my parents.”


End file.
